Athens Trip Report

Deb,
I think you should check out this example of a trip report https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/tr-france-october-2025-bayeux-rouen-paris

It's much easier to read, and everything stays together nicely, if you create one post (per location) and then reply to it yourself, keeping the different days spent at that same location together.
Much clearer for the reader... and you probably know there's a specific section for trip reports.

I second that. You currently have TEN topics going, when one topic (e.g. "My Athens-Santorini-Naxos Trip Report") would have been sufficient. Note that these can be copied and pasted back into one topic, with the extraneous topics then deleted.

Thanks for the advice, and yes I agree I have made a mistake.

I am trying to rectify it now.

I remember now having the same issue last year, so sorry for the error.

Sunday 12th October

We started the day at the hotel’s breakfast buffet with a view of the Acropolis. Breakfast was generous but not as good a quality as I’d normally expect in a five-star hotel.

The food was generally not hot enough and far too American for a European city. The bacon was the streaky variety and too tough. The Greek yoghurt and honey from the comb were delicious though.

We first headed to Syntagma Square, planning to watch the changing of the guard first off. I thought that it was on the hour, but it was half over when we arrived. It turns out it is at five to the hour. Hopefully, we will get time to return and see it again.

We then tried to follow Rick Steve’s Athens City tour. It was generally fairly good; his historical explanations were interesting and taught us a lot that we didn’t know about Athens.

We had a few issues with his directions, due to things having changed since the tour was published and the fact that there were lots of mentions of going south or west as an example rather than left or right. Still all in all it was a great overview, and we managed to cover a lot including Syntagma Square, the Parliament, the main shopping street, Ermou Street, the Athens Cathedral, the stunning mediaeval Church of Kapnikaria plus another few Orthodox Greek churches.

After that we wandered through the pretty Plaka district before visiting Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Zeus. We chose not to buy tickets to these two attractions as since we’d booked our trip to Greece, Athens has changed its ticket system from one where you could purchase a combi ticket to seven attractions for €30, to one where the Acropolis alone is €30 and each other attraction is €20. With the AUD being slightly over half of one Euro these days it would have been very expensive to visit them all.

Both of these ruins were easily visible from the street, so we left it at that.

We saw the Lysicrates Monument before deciding we needed a break.

We were in the heart of Plaka, so possibly not the wisest place to eat, but we very much needed a rest, and we found a table for two outdoors at a really cute café. We both had a gyros plate, mine was pork and G’s was chicken, and we shared an excellent bottle of dry local white wine and a litre of mineral water. The food was no more than okay, but the atmosphere was brilliant.

After lunch we wandered around the Acropolis without going in. That’s for tomorrow, after the Museum in the morning. The gorgeous area of Anafiotika was super cute but there were so many noisy tourists who seemed not to realise that it was Sunday afternoon and that these little houses were people’s homes. I’m pleased we saw it, but we didn’t stay too long.

The next piece of the tour took us past the Roman Forum and the beautiful Tower of the Winds. Again, we viewed these from the street which was easy to do.

We went to Hadrian’s Library then, on the way to Monastiraki Square. The square, and the area around it, was jammed with people and not at all an enjoyable place to be. We’d originally booked a suite in a hotel, A for Athens, then read reviews about noise, so changed our minds and cancelled. Thank heavens we did, I would have hated staying there.

This was the end of the tour, but we continued to the Ancient Agora. This time we did buy tickets and did another walking tour in this incredibly ancient place. We also spent some time in the Agora Museum inside the Stoa.

At this point we’d been walking for over seven hours, apart from lunch, so we’ve returned to the hotel for a much-needed rest before dinner at a restaurant that was thankfully just over the road named Ella’s Greek Cooking.

The food here was great. We shared a starter of grilled feta cheese which was different to what we are used to, but very nice.

G had pork souvlaki, and I had the grilled fish of the day with fish soup sauce, carrots and steamed greens. A very nice meal indeed.

Monday 13th October

This morning after breakfast we headed to the Acropolis museum which was wonderful, although extremely busy with bus tours and school groups. I’d really hate Athens in summer I suspect.

We then spent time wandering more of the Plaka district, then checked out Little Kook and the Athens Central Market before returning to our hotel with baguettes from our local bakery, a cheese pie to try and a bottle of Greek dry white wine

We ate a lovely picnic lunch in our room and had a well-deserved break before heading back out for our 4pm visit to the Acropolis.

After only two days we’re becoming familiar with the streets of Athens, so easily found our way to the South entrance where we scanned our pre-booked ticket and walked straight in.

The sun was very hot but there was shade and a lovely breeze so the climb up wasn’t too bad. There were one or two large tour groups that were a minor nuisance but generally it was an easy, pleasant visit. We did plan to do Rick Steve’s Acropolis Walk here too but he started from the main entrance, and it all became too complicated.

It was easy enough to work things out after our visit to the museum this morning and by reading the signs along the way.

We probably spent an hour and a half at the top before returning to our hotel and are now sitting on the balcony looking up at where we’ve just been. We're about to open a bottle of red to celebrate our day, before dinner at Athinaikon restaurant just down the street, in a lovely courtyard, perfect for people watching.

G had Gilthead Bream, and I had Slow Cooked Lamb with Baby Potatoes. They gave us a complimentary mini dessert. No idea what it was but it was very nice.

This morning after another breakfast looking at the Acropolis, we set off to watch the Changing of the Guard at Parliament house on Syntagma Square.

Unfortunately, there was a general strike today and the square was packed with protestors. Interestingly, it wasn’t remotely threatening, unlike the regular protests we have on a weekly basis in Melbourne. We were able to walk through the throng to see the Guard change very easily.

I’m not sure what the protest was about, something to do with public transport, but the usual death to the IDF, Pro-Palestine crowd were there too. They were a tiny minority though.

We enjoyed the Guard change, then planned to walk through the National Gardens to visit the Panathenaic Stadium. Sadly, the gardens were closed for the day, due to the protests, but we were able to walk around and visit the incredible marble stadium. We walked up to the top level and down into the very interesting museum. It was a very enjoyable visit.

Another of our plans was to visit Lyccabetus Hill, but with no public transport, no taxis or Ubers and no funicular, it was a bridge too far so we gave that a miss.

Instead, we visited the beautiful Hotel Grande Bretagne and had a pre-lunch negroni in the Alexander Bar. This bar has a huge tapestry of Alexander the Great and I love tapestries, so it was well worth seeing. It also ticks our box of always having a drink at the most expensive hotel in town too, which is much cheaper than staying there.

Finally, we strolled back to the lovely Plaka district for a final lunch. We shared cheese saganaki, then I had a chicken souvlaki with vegetables and G had pork gyros.

We now back in our room planning to get organised for our flight to Naxos tomorrow. We have one final meal planned in the hotel’s rooftop restaurant tonight before saying goodbye to Athens.

Metropolis Rooftop, the hotel’s restaurant, had the most beautiful view of the Acropolis by night, and the food was delicious, but frankly I want terribly hungry. I had slow cooked beef ribs with a side of potato puree with truffles and peas, and G had slow cooked chicken with carrot. We had no interest in desert, but they presented us with an amazing looking chocolate mousse cake for our anniversary. Obviously, it would have been rude not to eat it.

Wednesday 19th October

We were up early this morning to pack up. Somehow, my 18kg suitcase now weighed in at 19kg. I have not bought a single item, and it was the same set of luggage scales, so no idea what’s went on there.

Our private transfer picked us up smack on time and ferried us to the airport. No lounge before the flight this time, we checked in and bought a mini bottle of local white wine to share and a salami and cheese focaccia. The food was surprisingly good, but luxury was not part of the experience.

I will continue my Trip Report on Naxos and other places that we visited in a separate post.

I’m still researching hotels for our Athens trip next October. This hotel is on my list. Would you stay there again if you revisited Athens?

Yes I would Barbara, because the views were sensational and the location was perfect.

My only objection was that it was terribly expensive, although for us Australians at the moment everything in Europe is, and considered a five star. I would have called it a four star, not five, but maybe I am being picky.

The biggest issues for me, and they are admittedly minor, is that the service fell down a bit. Cocktails were pre-made yet were €25 each. Needless to say I only had one. The buffet breakfast was just not warm enough, and again the service was off. On our first morning we were greeted, shown to a table and that was it.

There was no explanation of where the buffet was, which was in a different room, or the fact that you could order coffee and eggs to order. We figured all that out, but at well over $1000 AUD a night, I don't expect to have to.

That was my first Athens hotel though, so I have nothing to compare it to and certainly our room was lovely and fairly large, and was kept spotlessly clean and they are the main things.